This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: NASA has selected a Planetary Science Institute–led proposal to investigate whether a potentially large underground cave extends beyond the opening of a lunar pit. Such a cave may one day provide a safe haven for astronauts to escape the radiation and extreme temperature swings present at the lunar surface.
Led by PSI associate director and senior scientist Than Putzig, the selected project is the Geophysical Instruments for Marius Lunar pit Investigation, or GIMLI. PSI is partnering with Honeybee Robotics, which will build much of the equipment and instrumentation for the effort. The equipment and instrumentation will be carried on a lander and rover provided through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.
The PSI work will be carried out in partnership with the Norwegian Space Agency. "GIMLI represents the type of ambitious planetary science that PSI was built to pursue," said PSI director and CEO Amanda Hendrix. "Than and his team are taking a scientific question we've been studying from orbit and have developed a way to investigate it directly on the moon.
We're excited to have PSI leading this effort and to be partnering with NASA and Honeybee Robotics to learn more about the moon and its volcanic past." Observations from lunar orbit have provided compelling evidence that caves and lava tubes may exist under the moon's surface. GIMLI's research will focus on the Marius Hills pit (MHP), a large hole in one of the moon's most volcanically diverse regions. Like other lunar pits, MHP may serve as an opening to these underground spaces, which may have formed during ancient volcanic activity.
GIMLI will allow scientists to investigate MHP directly from the lunar surface. "It's long been a desire of mine to reintroduce intentional active-source seismic methods to planetary science, as it has essentially not been done since the Apollo astronauts conducted the first seismic surveys on the moon," shared Putzig. "Combining that method with ground-penetrating radar and gravity measurements makes it all the more exciting, as these methods together will allow us to get a much better understanding of subsurface properties—including the anticipated detection of a lava tube extending away from the Marius Hills pit." GIMLI will use tools including ground-penetrating radar, seismic sensors and a gravimeter to look beneath the surface, with cameras providing imagery of the surface and pit walls.
Together, these instruments will search for an underground void extending from MHP and, if one exists, help determine its size. Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, is providing project management services and building the instrumentation for the active-source seismic system, gravimeter and cameras. They will also work to integrate all instruments onto the lander and rover and, together with PSI, will lead their operations on the lunar surface.
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